Vancian magic?

[pfisteria]

I thought Ellery Queen was the pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee.

 

[mmadsen]

On this fourm I have seen the DnD magic system be refered to as Vancian magic. I'm wondering what does Vancian mean and how new is that term to DnD?

As others have pointed out, Jack Vance's first Dying Earth novel featured a magic system similar to D&D's in two ways: (1) wizards had to memorize their spells, and (2) the spells had flowery names, often including their long-lost creator's name.

Vance's wizards didn't memorize dozens of 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, etc. spells though; they memorized perhaps a half-dozen spells. Interestingly, you don't need a spell-slot system to emulate this; you can just as easily use spell points, as long as wizards have to allocate their points ahead of time.

 

[kipling]

I thought Ellery Queen was the pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee.

You're correct. So are some others.

Other people used the Queen pseudonym (as contracted, of course). Sturgeon did two, I think but I only recall Player on the Other Side.

Vance might have; I don't know.

 

[KenM]

It's not "fire and forget" anymore. It's "magic requires lengthy preparation that can then be put into a trigger, once the trigger is sprung, it's like a crossbow, it has to be re-wound again, taking a longer time than just springing the trigger".

When they did 3rd edtion, they changed the term memorize spells to prepare spells. It sounds better and makes more sense with Preperation instead of memorize.
"What do you mean, I don't rememeber how to cast it? I memorizied it."